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A52 ACCOUNT OF DANISH LAPLAND BY LEEMS,.
From the nuptials and banquets of the Laplanders every kind of entertainment, the
dance, and fports of fuch a kind, incitements to ill, unknown to thefe people, are ba-
nifhed : and hence neither morrice-dancers, pipers, nor even an inftrument of mufic, is
to be found among them.
Andas they are altogether unacquainted with inftrumental mufic, fo are they equally
ignorant of vocal, and not only ignorant, but invincibly fo: for during the intervals
that I had leifure I tried their docility, which after various experiments I found fo great,
and to fpeak as it really is, none at all, that they were incapable of learning the very
rudiments of the mea{ures of the pfalms, or of adapting them to any harmony The
caufe of this evil is not in the Laplanders themfelves, but is inherent in the very charac-
ter and genius of their language; for the Laplanders bring out moft words, and each
fyllable of the word, and the paufes with the acute accent, ; and hence it happens that .
either fpeaking or finging in Norwegian, they encumber all the words and fyllables of
their fpeech with one and the fame accent, and thereby utter a hifling and altogether
confufed found. And this is the reafon that the modulation of the Laplanders is more
like to an indigefted kind of clamour or howling, than to any thing like finging.
When the nuptial feftival is over, the bridegroom often ftays with his father-in-law
for the {pace of a whole year, which when ended, he is difmifled with his wife, to find a
habitation, Before his departure, if circumftances admit of it, he prefents him with
rein-deer, with kettles, with pots, furniture for beds, and other domeftic utenfils.
Cap. XVII.—Ox the Holidays and Amufements of the Laplanders, and various Stories,
partly entertaining, yet true.
THAT feftival-holidays, as they are called, are ufually inftituted and kept during the
Nativity of the Saviour, the Laplanders are altogether ignorant. __
Some, but a few, among them play at cards, and that very feldom.
They contend among each other who can moft exactly hita mark. They mark the
target, on a white ground, with a black ; on a black ground, with a white fpot. He who
belt hits the mark is prefented with money, tobacco, and whatever is agreed upon.
They play at ball in this manner: part ftand on this fide, part on that oppofite to
them; then one on one fide lets off the ball, covered with leather and ftuffed with
itraw, cloth, and other rags, which his next man throws up im the air with a flick or
battledore, and then one from the oppofite number fprings forward to catch it before it
falls to the ground; when at the very fame time he who ftruck it up in the air runs to
the oppofite fide to take the place of him who came fromfit to catch the ball. If he who
aimed at the ball lays hold of it, and with it fhall hit him who is ftriving to refume his
place before he has reached it, he is the conqueror.
A certain kind of amufement, called the Goofe (Gaa/e-/pil), is in practice among them.
On a tablet are drawn certain lines, on which they move up and down counters, to the
number of thirteen, to defignate fo many geefe; one of thele, a thief, reprefenting the
fox lying in wait for the geefe on the oppofite fide of the board. _In this game there are
two, as it were, champions ready for fight: the one leads on the chefs-man, that is, the
fox ; the other manages the geefe. He who is fox does every thing to way-lay and take
the geefe, which if he fucceeds in he comes off conqueror ; the other, who undertakes
to defend them, ftretches the whole force of his genius to avoid cautioufly the {nares of
the wily fox, and when the enemy is on all fides furrounded by the geefe, and reduced
to an extremity, he carries off the victory.
As
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